Page 3 of Besties
Please say you will.
He chuckled. “You’re a terrible liar. You need me, so I’m on my way. I’ll get the first flight out and should be there by tomorrow to give you your hug.”
Emotions welled up inside me, including the one that I never dared to speak to Richie. Love. I’d been head over heels for him since he took it upon himself to help me get my grades back up.
My mom was working two jobs, pretty much killing herself. Richie’s family adopted me, allowing me to eat whenever I wanted to. When I told Mom I was going to get a job to help out, she said no way. My only responsibility was to go to college and be happy. I said with my grades what they were, I’d be better off getting a job now.
Richie told me he was going to tutor me. I thought he was joking, but the next night, I went to his house, he dragged me upstairs, sat me down at his desk, and we started going through the books. During one particularly difficult question, I looked up at him and my palms got sweaty as the light played across his face, casting a part of it in shadow. He peered up and grinned at me, and warmth flooded through my whole body.
It was the first time I’d experienced love of someone that wasn’t family.
And it scared the ever-living hell out of me. I mean, I’d had an inkling I was gay. When guys strutted through the locker room, their cocks swinging to and fro, and you needed to jump under the cold spray of the shower to keep yourself from boning up? Yeah, it kind of gave you a clue.
But never had I thought about Richie like that. Now that the picture was in my mind, it sent roots burrowing into my brain, taking hold and ensuring that Richie was never far from my heart.
From that moment on, all I could see was Richie. Those guys in the locker room? Yeah, I still looked, but my thoughts always drifted to seeing my buddy, wishing he would show off his nerdy body to me. I wondered if it would be pale, like his face. Would there be freckles? And why, as long as we’d been friends, had I never seen him naked before? And did I really want to now?
The problem with that? Not long after, he started seeing Julie Lynde, a fellow nerd—her words, not mine—and the two of them hit it off. They were tight. They went to movies together, bigStar Warslovers both. They’d go on for hours, and anything fromLord of the RingstoHitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxywas fair game.
Richie still made time for our study sessions, which I appreciated, and seeing as how my grades went back up into the B and C range had an effect on me. Richie was happy about it, but said it would get better with continued diligence. Still, that became the only time I really got to see him. He and Julie invited me out for pizza with them, but every time I declined. I really didn’t want to see Richie with Julie. Oh, she was a great person—funny, smart, had a wicked sense of humor—but she was with the person I wanted.
Bitch.
As much as I hated to admit it, though, she was good for Richie. He laughed more and stepped out of his shell, allowing her to take him to geek conventions in Madison. They wanted to attend GenCon in Indianapolis, but their folks couldn’t get the time off to chaperone, so that nipped that idea in the bud.
Richie and Julie dated until it came time for college, and then she went somewhere on the West Coast, while Richie went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was the recipient of a full scholarship and had dozens of job offers to choose from upon graduation. He declined them all, instead building his own startup from his basement and garnering it into some of the most popular apps around. Of course, being Richie, he gave most of them away, allowing schools and such to use them for free. Like I said, he had a heart of gold.
Even while he was away at college, he still kept in touch with me. He told me Julie had a new boyfriend, that he wasn’t seeing anyone, instead concentrating on his studies, and that he was enjoying being in Massachusetts, but that he wanted to come back home to Milwaukee.
I wanted that too.
Unfortunately, things kept him away. His startup, raising capital, and all the headaches that went with it. Still, he handled it with a panache of his own and came back when he could. We’d get together for a few hours and make the best of it, but the truth was, I missed my friend.
And now he was coming to see me. This would be his first trip in almost eight years. As much as he said he missed Milwaukee, it seemed that Massachusetts became his home. I took a look around the apartment. I’d gotten it cleaned up from when the cops had come in and torn it apart, looking for Jesse’s stash. Of course, like with the two years we were together, I was left to clean up after him, just like Richie cleaned up my messes.
I came out to Richie when I was fifteen. My stomach was in knots and my chest ached so bad, I thought I was going to have a heart attack. We were in my room, studying the reproductive system of a snake, when I closed my book and turned to him. “There’s something I have to tell you.” My hands were sweaty and trembling, and I had to bite down on my cheek to keep my teeth from clacking together.
Without looking up, he said, “You’re gay. And the answer to the question is homeotherms.”
I stared at him, uncertain what to say. I’d built this moment up in my head, thought through a dozen different scenarios, and now he’d just undone all of it.
“I’m what?”
“Gay. You like guys. Now, the next question deals with what kind of snakes give live birth. There are two types and—”
“What makes you say that?”
He cocked his head, confusion easily seen on his face. “Because there are only two ways snakes can give birth. Live or eggs.”
“No, what makes you say I’m gay?”
He smiled at me, not at all condescending, more indulgent. “I’m sorry, am I wrong?”
I’m not sure what I expected. Questions? Some anger?
“Aren’t you going to say anything?”
“Of course I am.” He flipped the page on the textbook and pointed to the reptiles. “Snakes that give live birth are called oviparous. Now, snakes that have eggs are—”
